Before Docker, before Kubernetes — there's a concept worth truly understanding. This standalone lesson explains what containerisation actually is, why it transformed software delivery, and how it differs from traditional virtualisation. Perfect for beginners, and a solid refresher if you've been doing it for years without stopping to think about the why.

Ever wondered what a real DevOps engineer actually runs at home? This tour pulls back the curtain on a fully operational home lab stack — from hypervisors and container registries to GitOps pipelines and Kubernetes clusters. No fluff, just a honest walkthrough of the tools, why they're there, and how they all fit together.

Everyone tells you to "just build a home lab" — but is it actually worth it? In this video we cut through the noise: who really benefits, what hardware to consider (old enterprise iron vs. shiny new consumer gear), and crucially — how to avoid turning your hobby into a second job. A practical, no-nonsense guide before you spend a penny.

Your first step into the home lab world. We cover the hardware that powers everything, take a high-level look at hypervisors (Proxmox, Nutanix CE, Harvester and more), and tour the dashboards keeping it all organised — HOMER, Homarr, and HomeAssistant. By the end you'll understand exactly what a home lab is, what it can do for your career, and how to start thinking about your own.

Two of the most powerful tools in any home lab — and once you understand them, everything clicks. We break down Proxmox VE as your virtualisation foundation, explore how Docker containers sit alongside VMs, and answer the question everyone has early on: what's the difference and when do you use which?

You've got Docker running — now let's actually use it. This episode goes hands-on with Docker Compose, persistent volumes, networking between containers, and Portainer as your visual control panel. If episode 2 was theory, this is where you start building things that work.

Networking is the backbone of everything — and most home lab guides skip it entirely. Not this one. We dig into Unifi, set up VLANs to properly segment your lab from your home network, configure DNS, lock things down with firewall rules, and get a VPN working so you can access everything securely from anywhere.

A home lab with open ports and default passwords isn't a lab — it's a liability. This episode covers the security layer: Wazuh for threat detection, Trivy for container vulnerability scanning, Fail2ban to block brute force attacks, and a practical hardening checklist for Linux hosts. Build with confidence, not crossed fingers.

This is where the home lab starts paying dividends for your career. We set up real CI/CD pipelines using GitLab, automate infrastructure with Terraform and Ansible, and deploy applications the GitOps way with ArgoCD. The same workflows used in defence and enterprise — running on your own kit at home.

Kubernetes is everywhere — and it's not as scary as it looks. We build a real cluster from scratch, walk through the core concepts (Pods, Services, Deployments, Ingress), and get comfortable with kubectl. By the end of this episode you'll have a working cluster and the mental model to actually understand what it's doing.